The 37-year-old this summer shocked Chicago's media world when he announced that he was quitting his high-profile gig to focus on a passion project, producing a podcast about the passengers who ride in his car.

But the risky move may be starting to pay off. After a Facebook video Ponce posted about his bold move garnered more than a million hits, podcasting giant PodcastOne — the company behind hit podcasts by comedian Adam Carolla, magician Penn Jillette and basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal — has agreed to distribute Ponce's "Backseat Rider" for a year.

And a relieved Ponce on Wednesday finally posted his first episode, whose theme, appropriately, is "risk."

Passengers who agreed to be anonymously recorded in the back of Ponce's car as he drove them across Chicago shared stories about the biggest risks they've taken.

And while some of the risks were workaday, such as a woman committing to buy her first home or a couple discussing the risk of opening their hearts to each other, other passengers discussed walking through mine-infested streets in Afghanistan or rushing down dangerous West and South side blocks to avoid being shot.

Though Ponce's risk was increased substantially by the fact that his wife gave birth to their first child, Theo, just seven-months ago, the passengers' stories "really put the risk I was taking into perspective," Ponce said.

He said he's been driving passengers about three days a week while looking after his son but that he expects to increase that number significantly now that his deal requires him to deliver 52 episodes in the first year and build a substantial audience. He hopes listeners will post their own response, and suggest future episodes, on his Facebook page. He says he's not getting paid by Lyft, other than for the rides he gives.

A Halloween special is already in the can, and Ponce — the son of "Chicago Tonight" host Phil Ponce and brother of WGN-Ch. 9 morning anchor Dan Ponce — is working on a presidential election special, maybe focusing on women's reactions to Donald Trump's taped misogynistic boasts, he said.

The next episode, out Oct. 19, looks at which movies most profoundly affected his passengers' lives.

Ponce, who once introduced the classic 1979 coming-of-age movie "Breaking Away" at a "Movies in the Park" event in Grant Park, said it hadn't quite made the cut.

As a graduate of Indiana University, he once competed in the famous "Little 500" bicycle race at the heart of the movie — but for a frat house team, and not the movie's beloved team of townies known as the "Cutters."

"I was totally on the evil team," Ponce conceded. "But the Cutters won."